New Windows Phone 8 OS packs in social, personalization features

Can new apps, new lock screens, and a child-safety mode draw in users?

Microsoft formally introduced the next iteration of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8, at an event Monday in San Francisco. The OS includes numerous refinements over the previous version, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, as well as a few new features that make it more competitive with rivals Android and iOS.

With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is introducing a feature named Data Sense intended to help monitor and regulate customers' usage of data plans. Data Sense will allow users to route their browsing experience through a "system in the cloud" created by Microsoft that will compress every web page loaded on the phone, and can automatically adjust network settings as users near their data limits. Data Sense will also visualize for customers how much data they've used and pop notifications if they're getting close to finishing off their allowance for the month. Data Sense also monitors WiFi availability, shows where nearby hotspots are, and switches to WiFi when it's available. Microsoft has not provided details on whether or how Data Sense will work with the shared data plans on family packages offered by carriers.

Data Sense can show a top down view of data usage by each app.

Among the most noticeable new elements are the resizable live tiles on Windows Phone 8's home screen. In our review of the Mango flagship Nokia Lumia 900 last year, we dinged the OS for its low home screen information density. In this new OS version, users can resize icons down to roughly one square centimeter and the icon still retains all of its live animations.

Windows Phone 8 will allow for more customization of the lock screen, too. Users can select an app to display certain information when the phone's screen is woken from sleep. If users select CNN, for example, the lock screen will be updated regularly with breaking news; if they select Facebook, the phone will display the users' Facebook photos in rotation (currently, Facebook doesn't allow the app to display status updates or similar info due to privacy concerns).

Enlarge/ Rooms are a place to share information like calendar events and photos with a specific subset of people.

One of Windows Phone's flagship features has been its "People" section, which works like a more holistic version of other OS's "Contacts." Now, in addition to creating "groups" of people, users can create "rooms," which allows the people you group together to have a shared Windows Live Messenger-powered chatroom, a shared calendar, and a shared photo stream. Microsoft noted to Ars that while the calendar and photos are accessible by non-Windows Phone users, the only messaging service that can power the shared chatroom is Microsoft's own Live Messenger.

Microsoft also placed emphasis on the availability of third-party apps. Windows Phone 8 will get its own official twitter app, and the platform has 46 of the top 50 most popular apps, according to Joe Belfiore, manager of the Windows Phone division at Microsoft. A Pandora app will be offered on the platform, and customers who buy a Windows Phone 8 handset will get a free year of service, beginning in early 2013.

To make the devices more kid-friendly, Microsoft has introduced a feature called Kid's Corner that allows parents to set up a controlled environment for children to use their phones. Kid's Corner is accessed by swiping the Lock Screen to one side, and users can place certain apps inside with restricted features to prevent children from wreaking financial and informational havoc (like sending unintended emails full of gibberish and charging hundreds of dollars of in-app purchases, for instance). The OS places some strict rules on what can and cannot go into Kid's Corner; for example, it's impossible to include Internet Explorer there.

Microsoft announced that Windows Phone 8's Photos app now works closely with SkyDrive, and users can store as many photos as they want, for as long as they want (though presumably not beyond the 7GB storage limit). Xbox Music will be present on Windows Phone 8 to compete with the free Pandora service, offering 30 million tracks for streaming and automatic cloud-syncing for playlists and purchases within the app.

Local Scout, a feature that recommends locations to eat, drink, and visit, has received a new panel in Windows Phone 8 titled "For You." For You is informed by information pulled from social networks like Facebook, and will suggest places or events to users that their friends have liked or mentioned in the past. For instance, if a user happens to be New York City and several of their friends liked the band "Of Monsters and Men," the For You panel will point out that the band is playing a show in NYC in the coming days.

Windows Phone 8 includes a new Wallet app, which combines the functionality of Android's Google Wallet and iOS's Passbook. Users can store debit, credit, and loyalty card information in the app, and can use phones with NFC to tap and pay at compatible points of sale.

Microsoft has finally added the ability to make in-app purchases, a long-overdue feature that will help earn even more attention from app developers. Microsoft also points out that Windows Phone 8 can now thread VoIP calls through services like Skype directly through the phone's dialer, without having to use a separate app.

The Windows Phone 8 launch event is currently in progress, and you can follow our liveblog for up-to-the-minute information. We will update this article as more details become available.

Promoted Comments

I find it odd that Data Sense requires carrier integration to work. Couldn't the OS just monitor the I/O of the cellular data?

Many people are on family plans. Without carrier integration it could not determine how close to a data cap you are unless it can get info from the provider.

5605 posts | registered Jun 29, 2001

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

I've been running "mango" since its release, and 7.0 for a few months before that. There's NOTHING in this update that makes me want to upgrade. Except for the hardware-dependent bits (NFC? multi-core chips), there's nothing in here MS couldn't backport to the existing userbase. I know WP 7.8 is coming but still....breaking backwards compatibility and leaving "early adopters" in the cold just for this???

MS is showing some serious disrespect its users; this is just insulting. Too little, too late, plus I'd need to buy a new phone so I can basically resize tiles and chat ¿????? 2008 called, it wants its features back

I don't see how Microsoft and its partners can increase Windows mobile much more the maybe 5%. Its at 2 or 3% right now and if the Lumia 900 did not increase market share that much. What's to say Windows 8 will? The other problem I have is that people like me with a recent Windows 7.5 phone won't get the full Windows 8 upgrade. That to me is disturbing considering how the Lumia 900 won't even get it. How does Microsoft expect to gain loyal Windows phone users when it won't even support the hardware? Many people like myself have ltittle choice but to wait until a discount upgrade and to think we have to muddle through maybe a couple years is not going to make me want another Windows phone. I actually like Windows phones and its OS. It does have some limtations but not everyone needs or wants mega huge app store or all kinds of tweaks to manage their phone. But as much as I like it.I would say I am most certainly not considering Windows phones for my next upgrade.

I don't see how Microsoft and its partners can increase Windows mobile much more the maybe 5%. Its at 2 or 3% right now and if the Lumia 900 did not increase market share that much. What's to say Windows 8 will? The other problem I have is that people like me with a recent Windows 7.5 phone won't get the full Windows 8 upgrade. That to me is disturbing considering how the Lumia 900 won't even get it. How does Microsoft expect to gain loyal Windows phone users when it won't even support the hardware? Many people like myself have ltittle choice but to wait until a discount upgrade and to think we have to muddle through maybe a couple years is not going to make me want another Windows phone. I actually like Windows phones and its OS. It does have some limtations but not everyone needs or wants mega huge app store or all kinds of tweaks to manage their phone. But as much as I like it.I would say I am most certainly not considering Windows phones for my next upgrade.

Microsoft shot themselves in the [insert your favorite piece of anatomy here] when they announced that WP8 wasn't going to be able to be back ported and thus slowed any potential momentum that they had there. This almost needs to be viewed as a relaunch more than an update. Hopefully for future revs it won't be like this, but I'm not holding my breath.

That said, I've been exceptionally happy with my Samsung Focus post Mango. I'd like ATT to get off their high-horse and offer me visual voicemail without a charge like they do with the iDevice stuff, but otherwise, it's been a reasonably good piece of hardware, and the OS has basically been out of my way as it should be on devices like this.

I bought a Lumia 900 in anticipation of upgrading to Windows 8, now I have an obsolete phone with 18 more months on the 2 year agreement before I can replace it, plus I find out that the applications I have been waiting on will only run on Windows 8. Not a happy camper right now. Perhaps Nokia, ATT & Microsoft would like to replace the Lumia 900's with a Lumia 920 .

Leaving WP7 users out "in the cold" so to speak is a calculated risk that they felt they had to take. I don't fault them really but it does sorta suck for those who can't upgrade for awhile. Then again most who can will either upgrade or choose another OS so really, with the small audience they have what harm are they really doing to themselves? I like what they've done personally and will upgrade once I can. I think the market is too important for them to ditch and unless W8 just flops Metro is here to stay so I feel confident they will support my product for at least the next 18-24 months. As a phone buyer now that's all I can really expect.

Another pissed off WinPhone7 user checking in. Thankfully it looks like WP8 is lackluster enough that I don't feel like I'm missing much by not upgrading. I will never be purchasing another Microsoft phone after they way they abandoned their current customers.

Windows Phone 7.5 user here, I was really looking forward to the announcement of the availability of 7.8 update...seems the older users, who made the mistake of buying a WP7 phone in the first place are left in the cold...

I find it odd that Data Sense requires carrier integration to work. Couldn't the OS just monitor the I/O of the cellular data?

Many people are on family plans. Without carrier integration it could not determine how close to a data cap you are unless it can get info from the provider.

Additionally, what matters is how much data your biller (i.e., the carrier) says you've used, not how much your phone thinks it has used. People have been bitten before counting their own data on cellular or home broadband, and finding the data used as counted by the carrier is higher, sometimes enough to cross a monetary threshold.

I don't understand the disappointment. I've had the same shitty Android Eclair for the past 2 years, but Google still continues to support it and its apps.

My phone is only obsolete due to the hardware limitations on my phone, not because of the software.

If I were in the market for a phone (I'm dropping my service altogether for just a Jet Pack device), these Win 8 phones seem pretty darn cool. Hell, the Win 7 phones are pretty cool. Then again, I have Eclair, so everything looks cool.

I hope MS succeeds and helps shake up the market a bit so we get some interesting innovations from Apple and Google.

It really does make it tempting to keep the phone service. But my VZW bill is $150 a month, and that's simply unsustainable and, for the very few calls I make, just plain stupid on my part.

What do iPeople do at the end of their contract? They friggin upgrade why should WP be any different?The guy that bought a Lumnia and has 18 months left of a 2 year contract because he thought he would be able to upgrade - I'm sorry but that was just dumb! It's been known for at least the last 3 months you wouldn't be able to upgrade and before that news was sketchy at best so it was just plain ridiculous not to have waited.

I have the HTC HD7 with Mango update installed and am quite happy and will no doubt upgrade next year around about June when my 2 year contract runs out. HTC 8X is looking favourite but unlike the Lumnia guy I'll do a bit of research before getting into another contract, you know, because it's just common sense.

As for the update to WP7 apparently the only bit of WP8 we are getting is the change to start screen, i.e. resizable tiles, no more arrow so less margins. That will tide me over - plus at least unlike iOS pretty certain I will use that feature and that's not going to slow down the entire phone.

I don't really get the people on WP7 complaining about being left behind. Why would you buy a device on what it could potentially do in the future rather than what it is capable of now? Microsoft never promised that the WP7 devices would be eligible to upgrade to WP8, but you'll still be getting another update now that 8 is being released.

You have a phone that is more capable now than when you bought it and will be even better once 7.8 is released. That doesn't sound like a terrible problem to have to me.

I've been running "mango" since its release, and 7.0 for a few months before that. There's NOTHING in this update that makes me want to upgrade. Except for the hardware-dependent bits (NFC? multi-core chips), there's nothing in here MS couldn't backport to the existing userbase. I know WP 7.8 is coming but still....breaking backwards compatibility and leaving "early adopters" in the cold just for this???

MS is showing some serious disrespect its users; this is just insulting. Too little, too late, plus I'd need to buy a new phone so I can basically resize tiles and chat ¿????? 2008 called, it wants its features back

(a seriously pissed-off Windows Phone user)

You are getting all of that. From what I've read of it, and I've read fairly extensively, the only differences between WP8.0 and WP7.8 is the functionality supporting new hardware. Which is completely irrelevant to WP7 devices.

Your WP7 device doesn't need to support a quad core CPU, gyroscope, or 1080p screen because it doesn't have one. It never will. There's no reason to put WP8.0 on it, it's a waste of time. WP7.8 is all the useful parts of WP8.0 without the parts that are irrelevant to the handsets that are getting it.

Which means that outside of the US, the availability of such a feature is probably going to be pretty low given that I really cannot see Microsoft working with 300+ providers to implement it.

That's if the solution is even made by Microsoft and not other 3rd party vendor. For example, the company I work for sells an Apple VVM solution to carriers.

Quote:

Your WP7 device doesn't need to support a quad core CPU, gyroscope, or 1080p screen because it doesn't have one. It never will. There's no reason to put WP8.0 on it, it's a waste of time. WP7.8 is all the useful parts of WP8.0 without the parts that are irrelevant to the handsets that are getting it.

But will it run WP8 apps? Because I doubt there will be a lot of WP7 development going forward.

You are getting all of that. From what I've read of it, and I've read fairly extensively, the only differences between WP8.0 and WP7.8 is the functionality supporting new hardware. Which is completely irrelevant to WP7 devices.

Your WP7 device doesn't need to support a quad core CPU, gyroscope, or 1080p screen because it doesn't have one. It never will. There's no reason to put WP8.0 on it, it's a waste of time. WP7.8 is all the useful parts of WP8.0 without the parts that are irrelevant to the handsets that are getting it.

For all the folks who are griping that your old phone can't run WP8... you have to understand, WP8 is a completely NEW OS. It's built around an entirely different Kernel. It's not just a few new features splashed in there.

Your single core phone simply cannot run it. It's not that MS just left you out in the cold. It's that they simply can't put out a new OS (time will tell if it's worth a damn) and support out of date hardware. The same way old iPhones can't run iOS6 and older Android phones aren't getting updates the same thing applies here.

The only thing our old hardware (I've got a Samesung Focus) would benefit from is the new UI itself. And that bit you're getting.

Think about it. You're whinging about not getting something you can't use anyway. Your Lumia 900 isn't going to suddenly sprout a second core or an NFC radio. The only thing you'd get, you ARE getting.

It sucks that it only took 2 years to completely invalidate the hardware but that, in my mind, has more to do with how tightly they controlled the hardware initially. A minimum spec always made sense. But a maximum spec didn't. And they're maximum spec was just too short sighted. So yeah, it sucks you can't use WP8 but you wouldn't derive any benefit from it that you're not already getting anyway.

I wonder how much data usage is going to increase with all this cloud syncing going on? Over a WiFi connection no problem, but if all your photos, videos, apps, settings, and other stuff are syncing on your data plan it could get expensive. Even if you don't browse the net.

Almost sounds like a devious plan by the carriers to run up data usage and charges! No wonder they are jumping on the platform!

Now the resizable tiles may be a nice thing to have on Windows 8. It would hurt to have the option to get the density of the start screen up, if you wanted.

What do iPeople do at the end of their contract? They friggin upgrade why should WP be any different?The guy that bought a Lumnia and has 18 months left of a 2 year contract because he thought he would be able to upgrade - I'm sorry but that was just dumb! It's been known for at least the last 3 months you wouldn't be able to upgrade and before that news was sketchy at best so it was just plain ridiculous not to have waited.

If he has 18 months left on a 24 month contract then he bought the phone about 6 months ago. You know what else happened almost exactly 6 months ago? Microsoft confirmed that ALL WP7 devices would upgrade to 8 FOR FREE. So was this user "dumb" or "ridiculous", or are you just running your stupid fucking mouth off without doing your homework?

Anyone who doesn't believe MS has royally screwed their loyal phone users is deluding themselves. We acted as testers on their prototype system - Win8 and by extension WP8 have been in development for years and Microsoft had every intention of ditching us from the moment WP7 was announced. We have been played for fools so that MS could try out some of their ideas in production.

DarkestEmbers wrote:

I don't really get the people on WP7 complaining about being left behind. Why would you buy a device on what it could potentially do in the future rather than what it is capable of now?

No one did that, you're building a strawman argument. The fact is that if MS wants to stay competitive then they have to do at least the same as what the other big names are doing - including upgrades. But this is much deeper than just not getting an upgrade - the WP7 devices have been obsoleted entirely. No sane developer will ever build a WP7 app again. Forget about any patches or incremental upgrades on the OS. We will not see IE10 on WP7 (which means still very, very poor HTML5 support). Developers for WP7 (the few loyal ones that remained) now have entirely obsolete skills.

The WP7 devices are fine - I love my phone. But it sucks balls to have a nearly-new obsolete device and know that if I had chosen a competing device I wouldn't be in this position.

Ten Wind wrote:

From what I've read of it, and I've read fairly extensively, the only differences between WP8.0 and WP7.8 is the functionality supporting new hardware

You haven't read shit because they haven't announced shit. All we know is we're getting smaller fucking tiles.

I don't really get the people on WP7 complaining about being left behind. Why would you buy a device on what it could potentially do in the future rather than what it is capable of now? Microsoft never promised that the WP7 devices would be eligible to upgrade to WP8, but you'll still be getting another update now that 8 is being released.

You have a phone that is more capable now than when you bought it and will be even better once 7.8 is released. That doesn't sound like a terrible problem to have to me.

And thats the thing, WP7 will, by end of life, had two major updates. Thats not too bad at all. And far more than most Android people can claim. I can see some of the iOS people viewing it a bit differently, although lots of people I know hate the updates as it makes thier older phones run like crap.

For a customer who bought into WP7, what you got was a OS that was continually updated and improved, over a period of 2.5 years. Not a bad deal.

- I bought a WP in the past year -> Definitely won't be upgrading to WP8. Good chance to leave platform all together.

Why? Until their contract is up it is irrelevent, and WP8 is a evolution of what they already have. Nothing on their phone stops working, they get yet another major upgrade yet to come(7.8) and when they come up at the end of contract there will be a slew of WP8(or 8.5 depending on the contract) devices out that will run all the apps they've already bought for their WP7 device.

Quote:

- I am a WP developer -> Which ecosystem do I develop for? WP7 or 8? One has no user base and one is becoming obsolete.

The one with 'no user base' offers easy access to Windows and Windows RT platform as well, for a new app its the most likely target. Depending on what features they are using, WP7 may be as simple as a compiler switch as well. MS dev environments are nice that way.

Quote:

- I own a different smartphone or no smartphone -> Interested in WP8 but there are no apps currently so I'll wait it out.

WP7 apps work on WP8. The WP7 app store has over 110,000 apps currently. There are some notable exceptions, but overall its competitive. Like anyone else, look for the apps you want, if they exist, great. If not, look at alternative platforms.

Quote:

- I bough a WP a year or more ago - >I might be interested in upgrading to WP8.

So who exactly are they targeting WP8 at? the 1% of their 3% marketshare in the last bullet point?

- I bought a WP in the past year -> Definitely won't be upgrading to WP8. Good chance to leave platform all together.

- I am a WP developer -> Which ecosystem do I develop for? WP7 or 8? One has no user base and one is becoming obsolete.

- I own a different smartphone or no smartphone -> Interested in WP8 but there are no apps currently so I'll wait it out.

- I bough a WP a year or more ago - >I might be interested in upgrading to WP8.

So who exactly are they targeting WP8 at? the 1% of their 3% marketshare in the last bullet point?

WP8 is backwards compatible. There isn't "no apps". All 120,000 of the WP7 apps are compatible with WP8. App developers can choose to compile their app for WP7 and have it run on WP8. Apps developed for WP8 specifically won't be backwards compatible, but there's still 120,000 to choose from.

If he has 18 months left on a 24 month contract then he bought the phone about 6 months ago. You know what else happened almost exactly 6 months ago? Microsoft confirmed that ALL WP7 devices would upgrade to 8 FOR FREE. So was this user "dumb" or "ridiculous", or are you just running your stupid fucking mouth off without doing your homework?

Microsoft confirmed no such thing. A rep did at a forum in Portugal, which then got noticed by the press and pushed out to global news. Microsoft refuted the story within 48 hours, and stated that his statements were not official.

I could sorta feel sorry for someone who bought within that 48 hours, for whom upgradability was crucial, and who somehow did not get it from a carrier that permits a 2-4 week return window. But that is a pretty limited group of people.